Presented by Japan Foundation
Funky Forest: The First Contact
Directed by Shunichiro Miki, Katsuhito Ishii, Hajime Ishimine
Virtual Screening
Official selection
San Francisco International Film Festival 2006
New York Asian Film Festival 2006
Hong Kong International Film Festival 2006
Leeds International Film Festival 2006
Indie World Film Festival 2006
Honors
Indie World Film Festival 2006
Leeds International Film Festival 2006
Hong Kong International Film Festival 2006
New York Asian Film Festival 2006
San Francisco International Film Festival 2006
Director
Katsuhito Ishii, Hajime Ishimine, Shunichiro Miki
Writer
Katsuhito Ishii, Hajime Ishimine, Shunichiro Miki
Cast
Tadanobu Asano, Kazue Fukiishi, Ryo Kase, Erika Saimon, Susumu Terajima
contact
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Official website
If you look at them just right, the most mundane elements of daily life can seem utterly bizarre. Conversely, the strangest, most inexplicable things can seem perfectly ordinary. That's the lunatic logic behind 2005’s FUNKY FOREST, a sprawling omnibus of the obvious and the oddball, the casual and the completely insane. FUNKY FOREST's daringly disjointed narrative is a mishmash of blackouts, non-sequiturs, flashbacks, lucid dreams, magical moments and so much more. Life's little disappointments are woven together with all sorts of extraterrestrial freaks and incomprehensible biological curiosities, music-video mayhem and mind-bending theatrics, and psychedelic surrealism of the finest grade, delivered with a deadpan shrug.
An all-time highlight of Fantasia’s programming returns! Collaborating with hotshot advertisement directors Hajime Ishimine and Shinichiro Miki, director Katsuhito Ishii brought together elements of his previous films – the rock 'n' roll hipster chic of 1998's SHARK SKIN MAN AND PEACH HIP GIRL, the discombobulated time-flow of 2000'S PARTY 7, and the lyrical, humane surrealism of 2004'S THE TASTE OF TEA. Watch out, though, because time and time again, just as they've convinced you that things are settling into some semblance of normalcy, you’re suddenly neck-deep in deranged weirdness. With a capable cast including Tadanobu Asano, Susumu Terajima, and even Hideaki Anno, FUNKY FOREST (and its sequel WARPED FOREST, also offered by Fantasia this year) gathered together some of the leading figures of Japan's millennial new wave of outrageously original pop cinema, and then set them loose to confuse you, amuse you, repulse you, excite you, and just plain freak you out. – Rupert Bottenberg
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